Featured Picture: Matt Energy | Skier: Mac Forehand
For a very long time, X Video games Aspen remained constant. That’s the diplomatic method of placing it, a minimum of. As freeskiing and snowboarding have continued to progress, the competitors construction has remained stagnant. That’s all modified since MSP Sports activities Capital purchased a controlling stake in X Video games again in 2022.
The creation of recent occasions like Sport of SLVSH, Road Type and Girls’s Knucklehuck had been good starters and have added a much-needed taste to the video games, however occasion additions are the tip of the iceberg.
On the course of recent X Video games CEO and former FIS freestyle mogul gold legend Jeremy Bloom, extra adjustments are across the nook. On January 21, the group introduced that they might be utilizing new Synthetic Intelligence know-how developed alongside Google Cloud to help in judging the Males’s and Girls’s Snowboard SuperPipe occasions.
Forbes stories that the experimental know-how is simply two months outdated, and whereas it was developed with enter from X Video games judges, athletes and analysts, it’ll haven’t any impact on the ultimate scoring. It is a take a look at run to see how it may be applied in future years.
Whereas having machine packages judging motion sports activities may sound like a dystopian situation, it’s already the fact in lots of sports activities. Amazon Net Companies (AWS) collects knowledge in partnership with the NFL, using machine studying to create Subsequent Gen Stats (NGS) which can be applied to enhance participant security, enhance fan experiences and extra. AI can also be used within the NBA, monitoring taking pictures patterns to assist gamers enhance their very own shot and defend in opposition to new opponents.
Because the tide of AI continues to seep into each avenue of contemporary life, it’s inevitable that motion sports activities like freeskiing and snowboarding are affected, too. However Bloom is assured that that is the best resolution as he fights to modernize the X Video games and make them “culturally indispensable.”
This summer time’s announcement of the new X Video games League (set to debut in 2026) despatched shockwaves across the {industry}, and whereas there are sturdy opinions held on both facet of the motion sports activities isle, the overall opinion is that the brand new league will profit athletes, which is at all times good for the game. There will likely be eight groups of 10 athletes, 5 males and 5 girls, with groups drafting gamers. Gamers get factors for his or her groups by touchdown on podiums at occasions, and the crew with essentially the most factors on the finish of the season wins; it’s that straightforward. Extra particulars on the XGL are stated to emerge following X Video games Aspen.
Together with these huge adjustments, authorized betting on the X Video games may also be launched this weekend. The thought is to drum up extra fan engagement and curiosity within the reside broadcasts, stories Snowboarder.
These giant adjustments are definitely stepping away from many elements of the counter-culture that X Video games and motion sports activities have been rooted upon. However generally change, whereas scary and tough, is critical. Bloom is satisfied that these “experimental” adjustments are a step in the best course.
In a letter to the X Video games group, Bloom wrote, “This isn’t simply one other management place for me—it’s a return to my roots. I perceive how onerous our athletes work, the sacrifices they make, and the dangers they take to succeed in the head of their craft. I’m right here as a result of I love them, and I consider they deserve a platform as huge as their ambitions, one which brings their expertise to the world with the respect and recognition they’ve earned.”
Whether or not these adjustments are helpful to followers and athletes stays to be seen, however Bloom’s optimism is contagious. Judging by his historical past as knowledgeable mogul skier, NFL vast receiver and tech-industry tycoon (sure, that’s all actual), it’s honest to imagine that he’s extremely motivated by and keen about progress, each for people and firms. There’s little doubt that these alterations are bringing extra eyes to X Video games than ever earlier than, and if that equates to athletes getting extra respect and cash in pursuit of triple corks and pretzels, then we’re all for it.
Tune in to X Video games Aspen 2025, January 23 – 25
